According to Space Weather , the massive sunspot 1429
unleashed a major Earth-directed X-class
solar flare, as a solar wind
stream flowing out of a coronal hole could reach
Earth as early as March 8-9.

CME
IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection
(CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on March 7th at
approximately 0400 UT. The impact was not a strong
one, but it could stir up polar geomagnetic storms
anyway. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert
for auroras. MAJOR
SOLAR FLARE: Big sunspot AR1429
has unleashed another major flare. This one is the
strongest yet, an X5-class eruption on March 7th
at 00:28 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded
the extreme UV flash. This eruption hurled a bright CME
into space. First-look data from STEREO-B are not
sufficient to determine if the cloud is heading
for Earth. Our best guess is "probably, yes,
but not directly toward Earth." A
glancing blow to our planet's magnetosphere is possible
on March 8th or 9th. Stay tuned for updates. Solar
flare alerts:text,
phone. - Space Weather.

MAJOR X5.4 SOLAR FLARE: The second strongest solar flare of Cycle 24 in terms of X-Ray Flux, just peaked around Active Sunspot 1429. This major event measured X5.4 at 00:24 UTC and triggered a strong R3 Level Radio Blackout. A coronal mass ejection will likely result and due to the sunspots more geoeffective position, there will be a chance for some sort of impact. CME UPDATE: A bright Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is now seen in the new STEREO Behind COR2 images. High energy proton levels are now on the rise and a radiation storm is imminent. CME IMPACT / GI GEOMAGNETIC STORM: In perhaps another developing story, the Solar Wind is showing a sudden increase from 360 km/s to 440 km/s and the IMF is currently tilting sharply south. This is a glancing blow impact from an earlier CME. A Geomagnetic Sudden Impulse measuring 20 nT was detected at 04:27 UTC. Be on the lookout for Aurora at high latitudes. A G1 Geomagnetic Storm is now in progress (Kp=5). - Solar Ham.

GEOMAGNETIC
STORM UPDATE: A CME propelled toward
Earth by this morning's X5-class solar flare is
expected to reach our planet on March 8th at 0625
UT (+/- 7 hr). Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather
Lab, who prepared the
CME's forecast track, say the impact could spark
a strong-to-severe geomagnetic storm. The flare also accelerated energetic
protons toward Earth, triggering an S3-class
solar radiation storm, in
progress. Such a storm is mainly a nuisance
to satellites, causing occasional reboots of onboard
computers and adding noise to imaging systems. A mild geomagnetic storm is already
underway,
following a lesser CME impact on March 7th around
0400 UT. Shortly after the cloud arrived, a burst
of Northern Lights appeared over the US-Canadian
border. Shawn Malone photographed the display from
the shores of Lake Superior: "I was lucky to catch this brilliant
outburst of aurora activity that was very active
for close to an hour," says Malone, who has
also made a time-lapse
video of the display. "The aurora had no
problem shining through the moonlit skies."

CME
IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection
(CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on March 8th around
1100 UT. The impact was weaker than expected, sparking
only a mild (Kp=5) geomagnetic storm. However, the
storm could intensify in the hours ahead depending
on electromagnetic conditions in the wake of the
CME. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert
for auroras. - Space Weather.

The biggest space weather storm in five years is heading towards
Earth and could disrupt power grids, GPS systems, satellites and airline
flights, Nasa has warned. In a statement on its website, the US space agency said the storm was caused by two solar flares that erupted on Sunday. Following the flares, two bursts of solar wind and plasma - known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) - were thrust towards Earth."The first is travelling faster than 1,300 miles per second; the second more than 1,100 miles per second," the statement added. The brunt of the storm is expected to last until Friday. A similar storm in January forced Delta airlines to divert flights across the polar regions. "Space weather has gotten very interesting over the past 24 hours,"
said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist with the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The solar flares alone caused brief high frequency radio blackouts that have now passed, according to the NOAA. The storm is likely to be "the strongest one since December 2006,"
Kunches said, despite admitting the Earth experienced a stronger radio
blackout last August. "But en masse, if you put it all together with the geomagnetic
effects and the solar radiation effects, I would put it on par with one
at the end of the last solar cycle, which was over five years ago." - SKY News.

CME
IMPACT: A widely-reported
CME produced by an X5-flare from sunspot AR1429
hit our planet's magnetic field on March 8th. The
impact was weaker than expected, producing only
a mild geomagnetic storm. Power grids and other
sun-sensitive technologies were unaffected.
Update: As March 9th unfolds, conditions
in the wake of the CME are becoming favorable for
stronger geomagnetic storming. HUGE
SUNSPOT: Active sunspot AR1429
continues to grow. It is now more than seven times
wider than Earth. CHANCE
OF FLARES: NOAA forecasters estimate
a 40% chance of an X-class solar flare today from
big sunspot AR1429. The sunspot is almost directly
facing Earth, so any such eruptions should be geoeffective.High-latitude sky watchers should
remain alert for auroras as Earth's magnetic field
continues to reverberate from the CME impact.
Aurora alerts:text,
phone. - Space Weather.

ANOTHER
CME IS HEADING FOR EARTH: Sunspot
AR1429 has unleashed another strong solar flare,
an M6-class
eruption on March 9th at 0358 UT. The blast hurled
a coronal mass ejection (movie)
almost directly toward Earth. According to analysts
at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will arrive
on March 11th at 0649 UT (+/- 7 hr) adding to the
geomagnetic unrest already underway. An animated
forecast
track shows that the cloud will also hit the
Mars Science Lab spacecraft and Mars itself on March
12th and 13th, respectively. Geomagnetic
storm alerts:text,
phone.AFTERSHOCKS: At first, yesterday's widely-reported
CME impact produced little in the way of Earth effects.
Eventually, however, a geomagnetic storm did develop
as Earth passed through the wake of the CME. Mild
to strong geomagnetic storms are underway
around the Arctic Circle.- Space Weather.

CME PRODUCES MONSTER TSUNAMI: The same eruption that hurled the
CME toward Earth also produced a monsterous
tsunami of plasma on the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamics
Observatory recorded the shadowy but powerful wave
rippling away from the blast site. The tsumani was about 100,000 km high
and raced outward at 250 km/s with a total energy
of about 2 million megatons of TNT. Such waves often
underlie CMEs like the one en route to Earth now. Animated forecast
tracks show that the CME will also hit the Mars
Science Lab (MSL) spacecraft on March 12th followed
by Mars itself on March 13th. Mars Rover Curiosity
onboard MSL might get some interesting
readings as the cloud passes by.- Space Weather.

WATCH: Stunning images of the Sunspot 1429 eruptions.

UPDATE: Sunspot 1429 Produces Powerful M8-Class Flare!

WEEKEND
SOLAR FLARE: Sunspot AR1429 is
still erupting this weekend. On Saturday, March
10th, it produced a powerful M8-class flare that
almost crossed the threshold into X-territory.
In New Mexico, amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft
recorded a series of shortwave bursts emanating
from the blast site: audio.
Also, the explosion propelled yet another CME toward
Earth: forecast
track. The cloud is expected to hit our planet's
magnetosphere on March 12th around 1800 UT. A CME
from an earlier explosion will arrive much sooner,
however.- Space Weather.

The Earthquake Unit at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies says tremors from a magnitude 5.0 earthquake that occurred in Cuba this morning were felt in several parishes in Jamaica.

This is the second earthquake felt in Jamaica in consecutive days following the 3.4 magnitude quake recorded near Yallahs, St Thomas, yesterday. A release from the unit says this morning’s earthquake occurred at 3:34 and was felt in Clarendon, St Catherine, St Mary and Kingston and St Andrew. There are no reports of any damage or injuries. The epicentre of the earthquake was in the Santiago de Cuba province. - Jamaica Gleaner.

A 4.8 Magnitude earthquake occurred at 03:34: AM this morning, 102 km NNE of Port Maria, Saint Mary, and 140 km (87 miles) NNE (17°) from KINGSTON, Jamaica. The quake was reportedly felt in sections of Kingston, St. Andrew, Portmore and Spanish Town. Residents reported being woken out of bed after feeling houses shaking and the sounds of roofs rattling. A quake with a magnitude of 5.4 had also struck northeastern Japan yesterday, near the zone devastated last year by the massive earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear crisis. The U.S. Geological Survey says yesterday's earthquake struck at 2:25 a.m. local time (1725 GMT) about 24 miles (40 kilometers) north of Mito, the capital of the Ibaraki Prefecture on the main island of Honshu. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in the quake. No tsunami warning was issued. Today's quake falls close to the one year anniversary of last years March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami which left more than 21,000 people dead or missing in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture. - Jamaica Observer.

The History Channel continues its popular series on extraterrestrials, alien theories and ancient civilizations with season four of Ancient Aliens. The following video playlist constitutes program five, entitled Aliens and the NASA Connection.

NASA scientists, former astronauts and secret government files all point to the conclusion that there has been contact with extraterrestrial life in the past. Researchers examine this and other recent scientific evidence that may provide proof of alien contact in both the recent and ancient past. - History Channel.

We've been remarking over and over about how mild and snowless this winter has been. Now we have the official word on just where the winter of 2011-2012 will rank in history.

Temperature rankings across the U.S. winter 2011-2012: A
number of 117 would indicate the winter was the warmest on record.
Conversely, a number 1 would signify the coolest winter on record.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that this was fourth warmest meteorological winter on record across the contiguous United States and the warmest since 1999-2000. (Note: The meteorological winter is December, January and February combined). Only the winters of 1991-1992, 1998-1999, 1999-2000 were warmer. All of this is based on records dating back to 1890s. New Mexico was the only state that had winter temperatures below the 20th century average. The map above shows where this winter ranked in history for each state. A number of 117 indicates the winter was the warmest on record. Conversely, a number 1 would signify the coolest winter on record. As you can see, there are many states that recorded a top 10 (27 total) and a top 5 warmest winter (18 total). States with a top 5 warmest winter: CT, DE, IL, IN, MA, ME, MO, MI, MN, ND, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, WI, VT, VA

Cities with a top 10 warmest winter (not a complete list):

Baltimore: 7th warmest

Green Bay: 2nd warmest

New York: 2nd warmest

Boston: 2nd warmest

Hartford: 2nd warmest

Providence: 2nd warmest

Chicago: 9th warmest

Kansas: 7th warmest

St. Louis: 6th warmest

Cleveland: 7th warmest

Milwaukee: 5th warmest

Washington 3rd warmest

Fargo: warmest on record

Minneapolis: 4th warmest

That's the temperature side of the story, so how about we explore the snow (or
lack of) and rain winners/losers this winter. A mild winter equates to a lack of snow. That's just what we've seen in the past three months. According to data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the snow cover extent during the winter was the third smallest in the 46-year satellite record. This is the first winter with below-average snow cover for the country since 2005-2006. Cities that were buried by multiple snowstorms last winter were well below average this season. You can see a few examples for a couple of Midwest and Northeast cities in the table below (Data through March 7).

Phoenix's FOX 10 reporter Andrea Robinson was in the middle of an
on-air report when an unexplained, bright white explosion appeared in
the distance behind her.

The strange blast was caught on tape and aired live during Robinson's report.
At first, news station employees thought the explosion was a
transformer. But when FOX 10 checked with local utility providers APS
and Salt River Project, they were told no transformers had blown in the
area. While the source of the explosion remains a mystery, it comes just
before the 15th anniversary of one of the most-famous UFO sightings in
recent history.

The drills continue in all the communities surrounding the volcano Popocatepetl, said the director of Civil Protection, Jesus Morales Rodriguez, who said that the drills also permanently in the area.

The state official said they were locking according to the Special Plan Popocatepetl, where they indicated that the performance of the drills are performed at least once every 15 days, at random to participate all communities. And is it mentioned that these actions are taken proactively and keeping the residents of these communities do not know when to develop the simulation to verify the conditions and reaction of those involved. According to the website of the National Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) the light is in phase two, in yellow, so that the conditions of the volcano are normal.It also discloses that in the last 24 hours, 11:00 hours, Popocatepetl has registered 12 exhalations of low intensity, accompanied by water and gas emissions, without major changes. Because the probability remains moderate exhalations emission of ash
and a slight glow seen at night, is recomida the Civil Protection
Directorate maintain, radio up to 12 km from the volcano, keep traffic controlled between Santiago and San Pedro Nexapa Xalitzintla via Paso de Cortes. Finally, we asked to keep preventivitos procedures and operational
plans, while the public is asked to stay attentive to the official
information that is disseminated. - Sexenio Puebla. [Translated]

Former American President Dwight D.
Eisenhower had three secret meetings with aliens, a former US government
consultant has claimed.

The
34th President of the United States met the extra terrestrials at a
remote air base in New Mexico in 1954, according to lecturer and author
Timothy Good. Eisenhower
and other FBI officials are said to have organised the showdown with the
space creatures by sending out 'telepathic messages'. The two parties finally met up on three separate occasions at the Holloman Air Force base and there were 'many witnesses'. Conspiracy
theorists have circulated increased rumours in recent months that the
meeting between the Commander-in-Chief and people from another planet
took place. But the claims from Mr Good, a former
U.S. Congress and Pentagon consultant, are the first to be made
publicly by a prominent academic. Speaking
on Frank Skinner's BBC2 current affairs show Opinionated, he said that
governments around the world have been in regular contact with aliens
for many decades. 'Aliens have made both formal and
informal contact with thousands of people throughout the world from all
walks of life,' he added. Asked
why the aliens don't go to somebody 'important' like Barack Obama, he
said: 'Well, certainly I can tell you that in 1954, President Eisenhower
had three encounters, set up meetings with aliens, which took place at
certain Air Force bases including Holloman Air Force base in New
Mexico.' He added that there were 'many witnesses'. Eisenhower, who was president from 1953 to 1961, is known to have had a strong belief in life on other planets.

The former five-star general in the
United States Army who commanded the Allied Forces in Europe during the
Second World War, was also keen on pushing the U.S. space programme. His
meeting with the cosmic life forms is said to have taken place while
officials were told that he was on vacation in Palm Springs, California,
in February 1954. The
initial meeting is supposed to have taken place with aliens who were
'Nordic' in appearance, but the agreement was eventually 'signed' with a
race called 'Alien Greys'. Mr
Good added: 'We know that up to 90 per cent of all UFO reports can be
explained in conventional terms. However, I would say millions of people
worldwide have actually seen the real thing.' According
to classified documents released by the Ministry of Defence in 2010,
Winston Churchill may have ordered a UFO sighting to be kept secret. The
UFO was seen over the East Coast of England by an RAF reconnaissance
plane returning from a mission in France or Germany towards the end of
the war. Churchill is said to have discussed how to deal with UFO sightings with Eisenhower. - Daily Mail.

The crater of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia seen on March 8, 2012. The area is obviously warm and INGEOMINAS scientists noticed ash in the crater area as well.

INGEOMINAS scientists were able to do a flyover with the Colombian Air Force and got a number of shots of the summit area. They also reported “ash on the glacier, near the crater rim and on the eastern flank of the same,”
likely from a February 22 explosion from Ruiz. The steam plume from the
main crater on the day of the flyover was ~1.4 km / 4,500 feet. That
same day, a seismic signal of tremor associated with multiple small ash emissions
were reported along with an increase in sulfur dioxide emissions. All
of these events suggest that Ruiz is seeing heating in the summit area
and likely phreatic explosions. The increased sulfur dioxide would
additionally suggest new magma in the volcano. The shots of the summit area
clearly show steam coming from the crater, although it is doesn’t
appear to show any new material in the crater. Shots of the entire
summit show ash on some of the snow-covered areas as well.

Derivatives Intelligence (part of Institutional Investor) reports
that the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has determined
that Greece has triggered a credit event as part of its debt
restructuring.

This would provoke credit default swaps—insurance contracts on Greek bonds issued under Greek law—to be paid out. But we don't know why they have this and nobody else does, and we
can't confirm. Therefore, we have certain misgivings about the veracity
of this report. While everyone expects that this will be the outcome,
the report is not currently out.

ISDA's committee met today to discuss the issue, and said it would
issue a statement on whether or not a credit event had occurred once
Greece formally activated the collective action clauses it recently
inserted into its Greek debt issuances. Consensus is that activating the CACs will indeed provoke a credit
event, however analysts have been waiting all day for a decision to be
published here, to no avail (yet).

UPDATE: Lauren Dobbs, a spokesperson for ISDA in New York denied the veracity of this report in a phone interview with Business Insider. They have yet to make any official announcement on the credit event.UPDATE II: The reporter who composed the story above is now tweeting a screenshot of an ISDA document allegedly confirming a credit event (h/t @LemaSebachthani). - Business Insider.

Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Service considers Greece to have defaulted per its
default definitions. The announcement comes despite Athens reaching a
deal with private creditors for a bond exchange that will shave €107
billion from its €350 billion debt.

The agency pointed out that even though 85.8 per cent of the holders
of Greek-law bonds had signed to the deal, the exercise of collective
action clauses that Athens is applying to its bonds will force the
remaining bondholders to participate. Eventually, the overall cost
to bondholders, based on the present net value of the debt, will be at
least 70 per cent of the investment, Moody's explained. "According to Moody's definitions, this exchange represents a 'distressed exchange,' and therefore a debt default," the US rating firm said. "This
is because (i) the exchange amounts to a diminished financial
obligation relative to the original obligation, and (ii) the exchange
has the effect of allowing Greece to avoid payment default in the
future."

Ahead of the debt deal, Moody's had already slashed
Greece's credit grade to its lowest level, "C," and so there was no
impact on the rating. Moody's pointed out it had already
downgraded Greece's sovereign rating to C from Ca on March 2, further to
the announcement of the debt exchange proposals. It also said it will
re-evaluate the rating to see how the debt write-down and the second
bailout package would affect the country’s financial sector. On
Friday, Athens announced that it had carved out a crucial bond swap deal
with private investors designed to write off more than €100 million of
Greek debt. The bondholders agreed to take huge losses, giving up some
74 per cent of the value of their investment. The agreement with
private investors was a crucial part of a new bailout from the EU and
the IMF aimed at averting a catastrophic default which could plunge the
entire eurozone into a deep crisis potentially harming the global
economy. Greece is experiencing its worst economic crisis since
World War II and has been on the brink of a default with debt equal to
160 per cent of its GDP. - RT.

Eels are one of the least attractive of all fish species and are normally found lurking in oceans and rivers.

But when part of New Zealand was hit by a 'weather bomb' recently, a
number of eels suddenly sprung up in some surprising locations.
Residents in one street in Masterton, Wellington, were left shocked to
discover dozens of the slimy creatures swimming in large puddles and
gutters in the road.

People could be spotted in the streets attempting to help the eels back
into deeper water as a number became stranded on the side of the road.
It follows days of appalling weather in the region.
Storms of up to 60mph rocked Wellington, bringing down power lines, trees and even forcing boats from their moorings.
Speaking to The Dominion Post, fire service central
communications shift manager Murray Dunbar said: 'We haven't had a large
weather event like this for quite a while.'

The poor weather conditions were caused by a 'weather bomb' , which
involved a rapid decrease in air pressure and produces high winds and
heavy rain.
Other parts of the region were expected to be hit by winds of up to 94 mph.
Eels are elongated fish which range in length from 5cms to four metres.
There are about 800 different species of the fish, which mostly live in the shallow waters of the sea. - Daily Mail.

Researchers who have been studying the aftermath of the Easter Sunday
earthquake of 2010 announced a new fault line has been discovered as a
result of the 7.2 temblor.

The earthquake, centered in Mexicali,
hit in the afternoon hours on Easter, and was felt through the Palm
Springs area and into the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.Seismic
researchers said the April 4 event triggered surface movement on
several Southern California faults, including a new one near the Salton
Sea."Every earthquake is an opportunity for new understanding,
but few in recent times have created more distinct new information than
the April 4, 2010 Baja quake," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt.
"Seismologists and geologists are eager to use the triggered fault
movement for unraveling complex stress interactions in the plate
boundary region of the Imperial Valley."Of the few dozen faults
in the Coachella and Imperial valleys that showed surface movement, only
about half were previously known to researchers or mapped.

Of the
known faults, the newly observed movement revealed one major fault to
be longer than previously known, and another was confirmed to be active.The
newly-named Ocotillo Fault, near the town of Ocotillo, was known and
suspected to be active, researchers said. The triggered movement --
which shifted 3 inches in both directions-- confirms it is an active
fault.The Elsinore Fault, one of three major northwest-trending
faults in this part of Southern California, showed triggered movement
extending three kilometers (almost 2 miles) to the southeast beyond its
previously known extent."It was exciting to identify and map an
extensive and complex zone of largely unmapped faults in the Yuha Desert
area of California's southern border with Mexico," said CGS geologist
Jerry Treiman, adding: "These faults may play a significant role in
distributing strain to other major faults in the Salton Trough."Locating
and carefully mapping the small surface movements was made more
thorough by NASA's high-tech Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle
Synthetic-Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) in concert with traditional field
geology methods of traversing almost 200 square miles of terrain on
foot, and measuring small gaps and cracks in the ground with fault
offsets of only a few millimeters.The previously unknown Yuha
Fault displayed some of the largest movements detected, between 50-60 mm
(about 2 to 2.5 inches). Displacements in the Brawley Fault Zone,
although not as large as movement on the Yuha Fault, were large enough
to damage concrete-lined irrigation canals. - KESQ.

A town in northern Australia has been invaded by more than 250,000
bats, prompting warnings of a potentially fatal disease related to
rabies.

The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) warned residents in Katherine to
stay away from the fruit bats, which could carry the Australian Bat
Lyssavirus. The disease can be transmitted to people if they are bitten or scratched. Authorities have closed down the main sports ground in the town 300 km south of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The colony of fruit bats - little red flying foxes - arrived in the town
late last month. In recent days numbers have begun to fall but large
numbers continue to roost on the outskirts of town, reports the BBC's
Phil Mercer.

The bats could be attracted to the area by native flora, or
driven to the area because of habitat destruction or changing climatic
conditions, John Burke, a senior wildlife ranger, told the BBC. ''Obviously in the town area there's a lot of exotic plant species that
are fruiting and flowering throughout the year,'' he said. ''So it's
more like a drive-through, I suppose, a drive-through take-away.'' CDC Director Vicki Krause told Australian media that the virus was carried in bat saliva. Some victims have died but that is rare, our correspondent adds, and a vaccination is available. If bitten, people should wash the wound thoroughly and seek medical
attention as soon as possible, Dr Krause said. Vaccinations were
effective if given immediately, she added. Experts say the presence of so many flying foxes in the Northern
Territory town only takes place two or three times each decade. - BBC.

The National Water Commission (NWC) says it is putting measures in place to limit the impact on its customers of the drought now affecting the island.

NWC Corporate Public Relations Manager, Charles Buchanan, said the dry season which began in December, is affecting about 10 per cent of the agency’s 46 water supply systems across the country.

He said measures will be implemented to help customers to cope with disruptions in the system.

Buchanan said efforts will also be made to improve the capacity to share water from least-affected systems to those worst-affected, as well as increased trucking of water to hospitals, health centres and schools.

He said the increase in demand on its systems, especially in rural areas has also contributed to the substantial decline in the yield from NWC sources.

Buchanan said restrictions will also be enforced between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. on customers served by the Constant Spring, Hope and Mona Water Treatment Plants. - Jamaica Gleaner.